Mr. Obama, please…

Ok. I ran errands, answered email and ate my weight at a Chinese restaurant, right down to the green tea ice cream. Then it hit me, I’m acting the way I used to when it dawned on me that a “perfect” new boyfriend wasn’t fitting the bill.

So, if I follow the usual pattern tonight will be the “big talk” and things will never be the same again — and in about two weeks I’ll figure out that things haven’t been the same for a really long time.

Here’s the takeaway from that conflation of the personal and political: I don’t have a great deal of hope that tonight’s State of the Union isn’t going to produce any kind of progressive second honeymoon.

Barack Obama isn’t the president I thought he would be. Analysts are saying that’s because the president rules with his head, not his heart.

My sense is that the source of the problem is a little lower.

Mr. President: find your cojones – please.

A healthcare bill without a public option and protection against penalties for pre-existing conditions is worthless. Pretend you’re Lyndon Johnson, head up to the hill and twist some, er, ears.

It’s not that I’m against people who are against health care reform. A Republican president would have every right to govern from a completely different point of view.

But that’s not the message you won on. Did Massachusetts not teach you — and Congress — a thing or two? Ladies and Gentlemen, press what’s left of your mandate while it exists.

Mr. President, do not tour after your state of the union address. Time’s a wasting. The Supreme Court just gave corporations the right to buy the next election and the one after that.